Sumus AMSA!
by DragonProductions
Summary: This is pretty much a sumarry of the Latin convention @ barnstable high.Meister, Grace, and Zach Hall are all real JCL officers.HILARIOUS. Read. I suck at summarys.


_**SUMUS AMSA**_

**Or**

_**A Tale of One Camera, Nine Delegates, Two Chaperones, and One Wicked Awesome Latin Convention**_

On the morning of her fourteenth birthday, Massie was woken-rather rudely, in fact- by her intelligent and nice but tuneless 17-year-old brother, Adrian warbling Coldplay's _Viva la Vida _from his bedroom, which happened to be adjacent to hers. She supposed this was a wake-up call of sorts. To thank him, she dragged herself out of bed, padded down the hall, and banged on his bedroom door. "Pipe down! Some of us were trying to sleep when you so rudely interrupted."

Adrian ignored her. Massie groaned, padded back to her room, and performed the classic "human taco" move. She folded her pillow in half around her head so that both of her elfin ears were covered, and pinned it in place with her arms. Sweet, sweet silence.

After maybe twenty minutes, Massie's alarm clock went off.

_Cause you're hot then you're cold  
You're yes then you're no  
You're in then you're out  
You're up then you're down  
You're wrong when it's right  
It's black and it's white_

_  
_She smacked the snooze button, and padded to her own bathroom to shower and brush her teeth. She came out twenty minutes later, clad in Sevens, an Alice +Olivia blouse, and a Nannette Lepore blazer. The standard Friday uniform of rich genii at AMSA. She went back to Adrian's bedroom and pounded on the door.

"Hey, big guy! You'll be late!"

He opened the door. His dark brown hair stood up in stylish and cute spikes, and his dark eyes sparkled. He was adored by pretty much every AMSA girl, all of whom envied Massie for being his sister. And Massie could see why. Adrian was tall, slim, suntanned, smart-he was the Latin tournament Intermediate Level star-and athletic, playing soccer in his spare time. This morning, he was wearing a blue Lacoste polo, blue Levis, and Nike sneakers. He grinned down at her, exposing his perfect white teeth.

"Good morning and happy birthday, squirt." He pushed past her and ran down the stairs to the dining room. Massie raced him, and got there first. She bypassed her birthday waffles-Adrian scoffed the lot- and grabbed a cereal bar and a Vitamin Water Balance. Then, she tugged on the collar of his polo. "See you in Latin Club!" Adrian always drove to AMSA separately, with his three Latin Club colleagues and soccer teammates.

Massie was waiting in the Range Rover when Claire arrived holding a big wrapped box. She handed it to Massie. "Happy birthday!" She clambered into the backseat next to Massie.

Isaac arrived after Claire, and the Rover left to pick up Alicia, Dylan, and Kristen on the way to school. Once they were all in the car, Massie began to open presents. Alicia had given her a purple Chanel iPod Touch holder. Kristen had given her a purple knitted cap in the softest yarn Massie had ever seen. Dylan had given Massie a box of white chocolate Lindor truffles. _Mmmm. _Claire had given Massie 14 small pieces of jewelry, each wrapped in its own different design paper. There was a Venetian glass necklace, a matching bracelet, earrings shaped like giant glass flowers, a silver Italian charm bracelet, earrings with big dangly hearts, a butterfly brooch with diamonds, earrings with little dangling bunches of diamond chains, a choker with an emerald pendant, diamond bangles, a Tiffany's chain with a silver and diamond heart pendant, a matching bracelet, a ruby pendant, and a friendship bracelet, which Claire fastened around Massie's wrist. Massie noted that Claire had a matching one.

When they reached the school, Massie and the rest of the PC made a dramatic late entrance. After school, they had a Latin Club meeting, which Adrian and his friends also attended. Massie knew them all by name. There was quiet, math obsessed Logan Matthews, lethargic Latin nerd Nigel Greene, and the AMSA Latin Club webmaster (in theory), Brian Wilson.

Latin Club was basically a long discussion of the upcoming state convention in Hyannis. Massie and the PC, as well as Adrian and his cronies, would be attending. They were the only ones. There would be nine delegates and two teachers at the convention from AMSA.

Claire was the photographer/historian, so she spent most of the meeting working on the AMSA scrapbook.

"The convention is this Friday, you know." Massie whispered in Claire's ear.

"I know. That's why I've been skipping lunch-to work on it." Claire whispered back

"What are you whispering about?" Adrian asked.

"The scrapbook and how much we've procrastinated on it." Massie said.

"Oh. Carry on."

Claire snorted into her hand and whispered "We've gone overtime and she hasn't even moved on to the scrapbook yet."

Suddenly, Adrian thought of something. Standing up, he said "Uh, Ms. S, we-I mean everyone here-really have to leave, so…could we do this later?"

"Sure."

"Excellent." Adrian led the way, followed closely by the rest of the guys, and Massie and the PC brought up the rear.

When the PC reached the Block estate-Adrian drove home with the guys- Adrian wasn't there yet. They ran up the stairs into Massie's room, stretched out on the sleeping bags Inez had set out, and began to talk.

"So, I checked with Ms. S, and we're all in the same hotel room for the convention." Massie said.

"Great. My mom insists on chaperoning, though. But that's OK-she can drive us and Ms. S will take the boys." Claire said.

"Yep. So that's all arranged."

"What are we going to pack?" Claire asked.

"Claire! I never expected _you_ to ask that!" Massie was shocked.

"Well, we definitely need togas, and besides that…jeans?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah. Sevens, True Religion, Juicys." Massie typed on her Palm Pilot as she spoke.

"And shirts, definitely some cute shirts." Dylan put in.

"Yep. Alice and Olivia, Nanette Lepore, definitely DKNY."

"Sleepwear?" Claire asked.

"Camis and short shorts. End. Of. Story." Massie said, typing frantically.

"Obvious stuff like soap and toothpaste and toothbrushes and all that crap." Dylan added.

"Captain Obvious saves the day." Massie muttered as she typed.

Kristen snorted.

Massie flopped backwards onto her sleeping bag. "And we are done. Did everyone write it down?"

"What about jewelry?" Claire asked.

"Necklaces, chunky glass rings, bangles-a crapload-and possibly earrings." Massie said.

They were officially finished. They fell asleep chatting. The next morning, on their way to school they brainstormed toga parade cheers. In class, they worked on their art and writing contest entries. When they went home, they worked on their photography contest entries. On Thursday, each girl had to find a sheet to use as a toga, and on Friday at exactly 2 pm, they left.

In Claire's mom's car on the way to the convention, the girls hurriedly assembled the final scrapbook. They tied the pages and covers together with satin ribbons, and wrote witty captions for the photos. Then, they finally relaxed-for about twenty minutes. The car pulled up at their hotel, a Holiday Inn, and everyone piled out with their luggage. Massie snorted as Adrian unloaded his stuff from the car. He had brought his iPod dock, his Settlers of Catan game, and his MacBook Pro. And that was just one duffel bag. His other one was filled with his clothes, books, and Nigel's "toga parade secret weapon", which was actually a giant Roman helmet. Adrian looked like a pack mule as he dragged the bags and his backpack to the hotel.

Nigel, Logan and Brian had each brought one duffel bag, AND managed to fit everything into it. Adrian was amazed.

The boys, it turned out, were in the next room over, and the chaperones-Ms. S and Claire's mom-were right across the hall. Massie flopped down on one of the beds. "I call this one. Who wants to share and who wants their own? There are 2 beds and 5 girls."

Claire spread out her sleeping bag between the two beds, Dylan nabbed the other bed, and Alicia and Kristen spread out air mattresses on the floor. Everyone was happy with the sleeping arrangements.

Massie unpacked another outfit and ran to the bathroom to change. She came out wearing a grey cashmere sweater that was a bit too large with skinny black Sevens and charcoal grey ballet flats and a string of pearls. Her hair was up in a bun and fastened with two fancy chopsticks.

"Everybody ready?" Ms. S asked, sticking her head into their room.

"Yeah." Claire said. The girls left the room, locking the door behind them. They had to wait another ten minutes for the guys to arrive. Adrian came out first, dressed in his favorite jeans and a BLA "Carpe Diem-Tea's the Bay" t-shirt. All the other guys were wearing the same one. Adrian had a large stock of JCL t-shirts at his disposal. He'd probably brought along the entire collection.

Logan had been deemed most responsible, as he had both keycards in his pocket. They caught the shuttle to Barnstable High, though Adrian was forced to knock over an innocent sixth grader to do so. Massie chewed him out for this on the bus, and so did Ms. S.

Claire had brought along her ELPH, and she snapped candid camera shots of Logan, Nigel, Adrian, and Brian. This managed to annoy Adrian out of his mind.

"Claire, if I ever see that camera again during this trip, I will throw it off a cliff." Adrian threatened.

"You wouldn't!" Massie exclaimed.

"Good point, squirt. I wouldn't."

Claire grinned, shifting the scrapbook so that she could prop her elbow on it and her chin on her elbow.

At the school, the girls registered their entries-photos, drawings, stories, and one huge scrapbook. Adrian snorted. "You girls have way too much school spirit."

"You don't have enough. We balance each other out." Massie retorted.

Claire snapped a photo of Adrian's stunned face. "Aren't you going to register for competitions?"

"Yeah." Adrian grabbed a pen and signed himself and his three friends up for the Intermediate Certamen, Dramatic Interp 2, Sight Reading 2, and the boys' costume contest-Pluto.

Massie and the PC signed up for Novice Certamen, the girls' costume contest-Ceres, Dramatic Interp 1 and Sight Reading 1.

They had to find their way to the caf then. Because Adrian and his cohorts had already been to the convention a few times, they led the way. Massie and the PC followed them.

In the cafeteria, there was a huge line for burgers, but practically no line for pizza. Seeing as Massie would let Adrian eat most of whatever she had, she got in line for pizza. The PC followed her lead.

At their table, Adrian and his friends started a mini food fight. They chucked dinner rolls, chips, and fruit snacks at each other while they debated whether Jake Meister or Zach Hall was a better Mass JCL officer. After the debate and dinner rolls settled, Adrian looked up at the ceiling.

"Holy crap. How did THAT happen?" he asked, pointing at the strips of whatever the hell the ceiling was made of dangling over their heads.

"Really bad food fight?" Nigel suggested.

"Look, there's ketchup stains on the walls all the way up to the ceiling." Logan commented.

Brian just nibbled on a French fry that he'd stolen off of Adrian's tray.

Claire, once she finished eating, flitted around snapping photos of everyone at the table. She succeeded in getting her arm twisted behind her back by Nigel, her camera tossed across the table towards Massie by Adrian-Massie caught it-and her head smacked by both Logan and Brian. She sat down, rubbing her sore arm.

"That seriously hurt, Nigel," she muttered.

"Yeah, well, you can't deny you deserved it." Adrian said. Massie handed Claire back her camera.

"Take a photo of all of us together." Ms. S suggested.

"Only if I'm not in it," Brian said quickly.

Claire set up her tripod across the table and Brian, who had gotten his wish, decided when it was a good idea to set the timer. Claire grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into the picture at the last minute. The photo came out rather well. Even Brian looked OK-for him.

After dinner, there was shat the JCL called a "General Assembly". Jake Meister, current JCL president, announced the candidates who hoped to replace the officers who were leaving this year. He himself was going to Princeton. Zach Hall was running for president. He was the only one. While Meister Jr-Jake had an older brother named Isaac-was at the podium, Claire dared Alicia to stand up and yell "I LOVE YOU, JACOB!!!!". Alicia took on the dare. She stood up, yelled that she loved Jacob, and sat back down, her face flaming red.

"Now I dare you to take a photo of Adrian laughing." Alicia hissed to Claire. Claire obliged. Adrian smacked her upside on the head after she took the photo. Alicia giggled.

After the General Assembly, there was the academic testing and the costume contest. All of the delegates took at least five tests. Logan and Adrian took all ten. It turned out that Ms. S was judging the girls' costumes. Massie, Alicia, Kristen, Dylan and Claire were all dressed as Ceres in different colored dressed in matching styles, with gladiator sandals and huge baskets of fake flowers and wax fruit. Surprisingly, Massie only came second after Claire.

After the contest, there was a bunch of crappy videos projected onto the big white screen in the auditorium. They were on a constant loop, beginning with a few clips from _Meet the Spartans_-"THIS…IS…SPARTAAAAAAA"-progressing to "Spongicus", and ending with a really random gladiator battle video.

After the movie, there was a fellowship. They had to fill out a feedback sheet, on which they gave everything except the videos a 4 out of 5. The videos got a 2. Adrian added this comment: "SICK…OF…SPARTAAAAAAA!"

Then, they caught the last shuttle to the hotel. But Adrian and his friends weren't tired yet. Massie could hear them playing Settlers in the room next door. At one point, sometime around 2 in the morning, she heard Logan's normally quiet voice screaming "SHEEEEEEEEP!!!" at the top of his lungs. _Adrian's insanity is contagious_ she thought.

The next day, there were fellowships after breakfast, lunch and dinner. After breakfast, there was a Certamen, then Ludi Dodgeball and gladiator fights at the same time as the candidate's open forum-Adrian and his friends attended the meeting-and then the fellowship. After lunch, there were Certamen finals-the PC won first place, as usual-and then the fellowship. After dinner, there was a fellowship, a General Assembly, the talent show, also called "That's Entertainment", the "Rent-A-Roman –Officer Auction", the JCL Dance, and an ice cream social.

That's Entertainment was hilarious. The JCL officers all switched clothes, forcing Jake Meister to go up on stage in Grace Thomas' dress. One girl translated the chorus of "We Are the Champions" into Latin-_Sumus victorii, amici/et pugnabimus ad finem/sumus victorii, sumus victorii/non tempum por vicis/quod sumus victorii…terrae._

During the auction, Logan, Nigel and Brian plotted to buy Grace Thomas and set her up with Adrian to go to the dance, but it didn't work out. During the dance and the ice cream social, Adrian, Logan, Nigel, Brian, Massie, Kristen, Alicia, Dylan, and Claire played BS. Halfway through the game, Claire and Nigel left to take the Classical Art exam. Claire finished in five minutes. Nigel took thirty. When he came back, he was muttering "Never again. Never again. Greek was easier than that."

That night, Adrian and his friends played Settlers of Catan again, but this time, everyone would get a chance to just randomly call out "SHEEEEEEEP!" Finally, Massie had had enough. She stuck her head out of her room and called "WOOOOOLF!" The guys quieted down, and heads popped out of rooms all the way down the hallway. Massie pulled her own head back inside her room, laughing.

The next day was their last day and the day of the toga parade. It turned out that the organizers had ordered enough pizza for everyone, but it was late, and the parade dragged on for an extra 30 minutes. The AMSA delegation wore t-shirts under their togas that, when they positioned themselves right, spelled out "Sumus AMSA" in capital letters. They started out the parade with a song translated into Latin-"Nos vos movebimus…Nos vos movebimus…"**A/N: IF YOU CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT SONG IT IS, YOU GET A MENTION IN ONE OF MY NEXT FICS. **They moved on to "Inventuri/Percsrutamur". Adrian, Nigel, Logan or Brian would yell "INVENTURI!" and the rest would respond "PERSCRUTAMUR!" It went on like this for another few minutes. Then, the boys would recite the AMSA creed in Latin, and the girls would chime in on the last word. Their second-to-last cheer was "Quid nos sumus? Sumus AMSA!" which meant "Who are we? We are AMSA!" And the final cheer was "Agite Aquilae!",or "Go Eagles!"

AMSA only own second place in spirit, but Massie got a crapload of awards AND a big shiny trophy. The drive home was quiet-everyone was asleep. They hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep at the convention.


End file.
